last mile

noun

plural last miles

1

: the final stage of the distance that must be covered by a service (as a telecommunications network or delivery service) in order to reach a consumer

… there will be only two ways to make big money. One is in owning the so-called last mile of cable leading to the home. The other is in owning content.

—Janet Guyon

The Internet may seem amorphous, but it's at heart pretty physical. Its backbone is a huge array of fiber-optic, telephone, and TV cables that carry data from country to country. To gain access, you need someone to connect your house to that backbone. This is what's known as the "last mile" problem, and it's usually solved by large internet service providers …

—Clive Thompson

—sometimes hyphenated when used before another noun

That's why UPS and FedEx don't ship everywhere. It's just not profitable. So where do they turn for last-mile delivery? To the Postal Service.

—Josh Sanburn

2

: the walk of a condemned person to the place of execution

—usually used with the

Some of Sing Sing's higher-profile cases received sensational coverage … spawning more than a dozen major Hollywood movies that imprinted chilling images of the chair, the last mile, and other macabre conventions onto the minds of generations of Americans.

—Scott Christianson

Examples of last mile in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The loop from discovery to delivery, from lab to last mile and from innovation to impact must be closed. —Aman Gupta, Forbes.com, 8 Sep. 2025

To travel this last mile well, data professionals need to switch modes of operation from the technical to the human. —Ben Jones, Forbes, 5 Mar. 2025

The Harris campaign’s fall ad blitz will come during the crucial last mile of the race when both party’s conventions are over and Democrats and Republicans are making their final pitches to swing state voters. —Rebecca Picciotto, CNBC, 17 Aug. 2024

That means less waste, less carrying costs, and improvements in access to last mile primary healthcare clinics. —IEEE Spectrum, 3 Apr. 2018

Word History

First Known Use

1974, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for last mile

• argyle
• awhile
• beguile
• compile
• condyle
• defile
• erstwhile
• exile
• freestyle
• gentile
• hairstyle
• lifestyle